Amy Tan (born 1952) is known for her lyrically written tales of
emotional conflict between Chinese-American mothers and daughters
separated by generational and cultural differences. Together with her
distinctive writing style and rich imagery, Tan's treatment of such themes
as loss and reconciliation, hope and failure, friendship and familial
conflict, and the healing power of storytelling have brought her popular
success and critical attention.
Tan was born in Oakland, California. Her father was a Chinese-born
Baptist minister; her mother was the daughter of an upper-class family in
Shanghai. While still in her teens, Tan experienced the loss of both her
father and her sixteen-year-old brother to brain tumors and learned
that two sisters from her mother's first marriage in China were still alive
(one of several autobiographical elements she would later incorporate into
her fiction). Tan majored in English at San Jose State in the early 1970s
rather than fulfill her mother's expectations of becoming a neurosurgeon.